COVID-19 infects 51m, kills 1.27m
Milestones reinforce global challenge, with US among nations logging fresh highs
The coronavirus has hit another sobering milestone with more than 51 million confirmed cases worldwide since the pandemic began, and the United States becoming the first country to record 10 million cases.
Johns Hopkins University’s coronavirus tracker reported over 51.51 million COVID-19 cases globally as of Nov 11. More than 1.27 million people have died from the disease since the pandemic started in late 2019.
The US, with about 4 percent of the world’s population, represents almost a fifth of all reported cases. The country has had 10.26 million infections and more than 239,000 deaths from the virus, according to the data from Johns Hopkins University in Maryland.
In the past 10 days, the US has reported more than 1 million cases, the highest rate of infections since the nation reported its first coronavirus case.
The number of reported deaths nationwide climbed by more than 1,000 for a fifth consecutive day on Nov 7, a trend last seen in mid-August, according to a Reuters tally.
Health experts said deaths tend to increase four to six weeks after a surge in infections.
Much as in the US, the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths are rising in many countries, placing more pressure on governments to curb the spread.
In Italy, the governor of an autonomous Alpine Province famed for its ski resorts has declared it a “red zone”, shutting down as of Nov 9 most nonessential shops, barring cafes and restaurants from serving meals and forbidding residents to leave their towns except for essential reasons like work.
Bolzano Province Governor Arno Kompatscher said on Nov 8 that he decided to order the crackdown as intensive-care unit beds started rapidly filling up with COVID-19 patients.
“We could add 100 ICU beds,” the governor said. “But we can only hold up to a certain point”. He noted that the province needed more doctors and nurses.
Bolzano Province joins the northern regions of Lombardy, Piedmont and Valle d’Aosta, a small Alpine region, as so-called red zones in Italy. Calabria, the southern “toe” of the Italian mainland, is also under strict measures in view of its fragile public hospital system.
As of Nov 10, Italy had recorded
960,373 cases, with 41,750 deaths.
In Algeria, the health of President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who contracted COVID-19, is “constantly improving” and he is “in the process of completing his treatment”, the presidency said on Nov 8.
Tebboune, 74, has been treated in a specialized hospital in Germany since Oct 28.
In a separate statement released later on Nov 8, Tebboune conveyed his “sincere thanks to the people” for their interest in his condition,
according to the presidency.
He also expressed thanks to leaders and governments of other countries for their messages of support, it said.
Algeria’s government on Nov 8 moved to strengthen measures to combat the spread of the virus in the country, extending a curfew already in place in 20 of the North African country’s 48 regions to a further nine areas.
A second, record-breaking wave of coronavirus infections is also sweeping Russia.
According to many observers, the first wave of infections never really ended.
As of Nov 9, more than 1.79 million COVID-19 cases and over 30,700 deaths had been reported in Russia. The country ranked fourth globally in terms of confirmed cases, behind the United States, India and Brazil, according to data from multiple sources.
Russian cities, including St. Petersburg and the Western enclave of Kaliningrad, have reported their highest caseloads since the outbreak in the spring, while in the past month COVID-19 hospitalizations in the Moscow area have doubled.
However, in contrast to the situation in spring, less than 30 percent of the latest cases have been reported in Moscow. The capital has also managed to avoid the shortage of hospital workers and beds it experienced earlier during the outbreak.
According to The Moscow Times, five large hospitals across the city were recently reserved for COVID-19 patients by authorities in the capital.
Alexander Kupurin, a doctor at Kommunarka Hospital in Moscow, said: “We are not overwhelmed. There is a lot of work, but things are going steadily.”
However, Vasily Vlassov, an epidemiologist at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, said the situation in the regions is very different.
Vlassov said that while the surge in infections can be partly explained by improved testing, there is an “undeniable” rise in the number of cases nationwide.
“As is usually the case, the regions don’t have the same resources as Moscow and St. Petersburg, and they never really had a break from the virus in the summer,” he said.